AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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Unions may join international organizations, and the BFTU is affiliated with the
ICFTU. The Minister of Labor must approve any affiliation with an outside labor
movement, but unions may appeal to the courts if an application for affiliation is
refused.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.—The Constitution provides for
collective bargaining for unions that have enrolled 25 percent of a labor force. In
reality only the mineworker unions have the organizational strength to engage in
collective bargaining. Elected labor union officials are required by law to work full
time in whatever industry they represent; consequently, there are no full-time elected
labor leaders in the country. However, unions may employ full-time staff.
Workers may not be fired for union-related activities. Dismissals may be appealed
to labor officers or civil courts, but labor offices rarely do more than order 2 months’
severance pay.
The country has only one export processing zone, located in the town of Selebi-
Phikwe, and it is subject to the same labor laws as the rest of the country.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.—The constitutional provision prohibiting
forced or bonded labor applies to all citizens, although there are no laws
that specifically prohibit forced or bonded labor by children; there were no reports
of forced or bonded labor.
d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment of Children.—Although
education is not compulsory, the Government provides 7 years of
free primary education to every child, and most children take advantage of this opportunity.
Only an immediate family member may employ a child age 13 or younger,
and no juvenile under age 15 may be employed in any industry. Only persons
over age 16 may be hired to perform night work, and no person under age 16 is
allowed to perform hazardous labor, including mining. District and municipal councils
have child welfare divisions, which are responsible for enforcing child labor
laws. Two laws focus on the protection of orphans and adopted children from exploitative
labor. The Adoption Act ensures that adopted children are not exploited
as cheap labor, and the Employment Act protects orphans from exploitation as
cheap labor or coercion into prostitution. Because research on the issue of child
labor is limited, it is difficult to state whether child labor laws are enforced effectively.
However, there is general agreement among the Labor Commissioner, officials
of the Ministry of Local Government, Lands, and Housing, and UNICEF that
the child labor problem is limited to young children in remote areas who work as
cattle tenders, maids, or babysitters.
The Government ratified ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child
labor on January 3, and is in the process of bringing its national laws into compliance
with international treaty obligations. The Government launched a 10-year program
of action for children in 1997; however, implementation has proceeded slowly.
The constitutional provision prohibiting forced or bonded labor applies to all citizens,
although there are no laws that specifically prohibit forced or bonded labor by
children (see Section 6.c.); there were no reports of forced or bonded labor by children.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.—The minimum daily wage for most full time
labor in the private sector was $3.15 (17 Botswana pula), which remained less than
50 percent of what the Government calculates is necessary to meet the basic needs
of a family of five. Wage policy is determined by the Cabinet, which decides on recommendations
made by the National Economic, Manpower and Incomes Committee
(NEMIC), which consists of government, BFTU, and private sector representatives.
The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage, and each of
the country’s districts has at least one labor inspector. Civil service disputes are referred
to an ombudsman for resolution. Private labor disputes are mediated by labor
commissioners, but insufficient numbers have resulted in 1 to 2 year backlogs. In
1999 the Ministry of Labor received over 9,000 labor disputes and referred a small
but undisclosed number of them to the Industrial Court for its review, which currently
has a 9-18 month backlog.
Formal sector jobs almost always pay well above minimum wage levels. Informal
sector employment, particularly in the agricultural and domestic service sectors,
where housing and food are included, frequently pay below the minimum wage.
There is no mandatory minimum wage for domestic workers, and the Ministry of
Labor no longer recommends a minimum wage for them. Illegal immigrants from
poorer neighboring countries, primarily Zambians and Zimbabweans, are exploited
easily in labor matters, as they would be subject to deportation if they filed grievances
against their employers.
The law permits a maximum 48-hour workweek, exclusive of overtime, which is
payable at time and a half for each additional hour. Most modern private and public
sector jobs are on the 40-hour workweek.
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